Proximity

Proximity is an album by drummer Andrew Cyrille and saxophonist Bill McHenry. It was recorded in November 2014 at Brooklyn Recording in Brooklyn, NY, and was released by Sunnyside Records in 2016. Reception DownBeat'''s Carlo Wolff stated that McHenry and Cyrille "make passionate music," and wrote that the album "conjures a conversation you'd love to join." He called "Fabula" "a spasming tune... that threatens to fall all over itself but miraculously remains upright," on which "percussion and saxophone seem of one mind." In a review for All About Jazz, Budd Kopman wrote: "the session is very atmospheric and concentrated... The sound is wide and large, rather than sharp and concentrated, but this diffuse sound paradoxically is highly focused... The rather sparse music of Proximity is... captivating and actually a very emotional experience that feels to be almost like being there." In a second review for the same publication, Glenn Astarita commented: "McHenry's full-bodied tenor sound is occasionally mellowed via his light-hearted dialogues with Cyrille's poetic and overtly melodic fills, countered by many bristling improv segments. Even without a bassist, the musicians still manage to sustain a tightknit working relationship along with a capacious backdrop... these jazz masters transmit a compassionate and indisputably upbeat mindset from start to finish."